So I've really messed up... my skin has been doing better, I actually had my skin more or less under control... then i got PMS, i was stressed about college and other stuff, and i have a boyfriend that is a real perfectionist about appearances.. a large deep-under skin cyst came up on my upper cheek, it was hard and painful and almost purple in color. After washing my face one night, i kept looking and touching at it, i could see a hard white head..that was all i needed, and i attacked! I squeezed, i pressed, i mashed.... I could see tissue fluid oozing and the thin layer of skin was getting peeled up, but i was in a white hot fury.. i couldnt stop... all of the sudden it popped, it sqirted, it oozed.. i thought that the worst was behind me, but then i noticed the skin was throbbing... it was extremely painful.. I applied a cottonball with alchohol..it stung and burned, it was extremely hot to the touch. I applied neosporin and prayed it would go away overnight. When i awoke, i could feel my cheek hot and swollen..i could see my cheek if i looked down, even the skin around my eye was hot and swollen.. the whole side of my face was hot and painful. When i looked in the mirror, i was shocked..a half-dollar sized wound, hot-red, half crusty-scab, half oozing.. swollen. I just wanted to die, cant go to school, cant go anywhere! I have been cleaning it with witch hazel and keeping neosporin on it...it has been 3 days.. the swelling on my face has gone down..the wound is slightly smaller and no longer oozing.. still hot-red and hurts. maybe it's infected? i dont have insurance! please everyone...dont be like me...DON'T PICK

It is Monday. Now 4 days since i picked it. The swelling is down, redness is down. What is left is a quarter-sized gross, indented, yellow-ish, scab.. nowhere near ready to come off... around the scab is bright pink thin tissue that looks like it is bieng pulled in to close the wound. This type of thing is impossible to cover with make up... and it is right smack in the middle of my cheek, perpendicular to my eye. I have to go to college today, and i have a 2-hour lab class where my lab-mates are looking right at my face across the table the whole time... normally, i wouldn't even think of leaving the house today (I haven't left since Friday) but missing a lab is just out of the question..and i'm too old now (25) to be failing classes cuz i picked and now i cannot face it. It is rediculus to hope that by 12:00 it will look better. And i really need to stop looking in the mirror every five minutes just to re-apply neosporin.. i run thre risk of trying to pull the scab off and making everything worse.. It helps to talk about it on here.

ok...hour until class, I went in the mirror, placed a tissue on the neosporin the tissue stuck to the wound, when i peeled it up half of the scab stuck to it.. as i pulled, the scab came unstuck from face and pulled away. There was some bleeding around the edges. The wound looks pink, soft, shallow. still appx quarter-size. I am not sure what i should do about it now... i put neosporin on it.

My advice would be to stop touching it! Don't pick at it, don't poke it, don't rub it - don't do anything with it. Touching it will make it worse and possibly infected! When I was in college a couple of years ago, I picked a pimple under my chin and I ended up getting some sort of staph infection. After I picked the pimple, it started to grow and grow and grow until it was the size of a golf ball. I was hoping that it would heal on its own, but it just kept getting bigger and more painful. I went to a surgeon who ended up popping the sucker. For about 2 weeks, I had to go to the campus health center every day to get dressing placed inside the wound so that it would heal properly, from the inside - out. This happened when I turned 21, so my driver's license picture is horrendous! Anyway, because the doctor had to slice it open and drain it, there is a pretty large scar under my chin. It doesn't bother me because its under my chin and not noticeable. But after that happened, I've been pretty good (not perfect!!) about touching my pimples .

If it gets bigger and more painful, I would suggest seeing a doctor about it because it might be infected. Hopefully it will go away on its own

QUOTE (ruski @ Mar 30 2009, 08:50 AM)

ok...hour until class, I went in the mirror, placed a tissue on the neosporin the tissue stuck to the wound, when i peeled it up half of the scab stuck to it.. as i pulled, the scab came unstuck from face and pulled away. There was some bleeding around the edges. The wound looks pink, soft, shallow. still appx quarter-size. I am not sure what i should do about it now... i put neosporin on it.

Thank you so much for your response.. I really appreciate it! Well I went to class today, with the scab... It was very very difficult because i could see people looking, even staring at it. I chickened out.. I gave my turn-in assignment to a classmate and asked him to tell the professor that i had a doctor's appointment and had to miss lab. Then I rushed to the comfort and privacy of home. I did not pick or touch or even look at the scab again.. I even decided to meet with my boyfriend, I hadn't seen him all weekend.. but have been telling him about this thing.. well when he saw it he assured me that it wasnt as bad as i'd been telling him (but it IS a good deal better now). Still a shallow crusty scab, but it is light pink now and the skin arround it has returned to normal color and it is not swollen. The scab itself still hurts (especially after making love and it accidentally getting rubbed a little). I just hope that it is even better tomorrow. The point can definately be made that when you do not touch your skin it is always better than when you do.

So I've really messed up... my skin has been doing better, I actually had my skin more or less under control... then i got PMS, i was stressed about college and other stuff, and i have a boyfriend that is a real perfectionist about appearances.. a large deep-under skin cyst came up on my upper cheek, it was hard and painful and almost purple in color. After washing my face one night, i kept looking and touching at it, i could see a hard white head..that was all i needed, and i attacked! I squeezed, i pressed, i mashed.... I could see tissue fluid oozing and the thin layer of skin was getting peeled up, but i was in a white hot fury.. i couldnt stop... all of the sudden it popped, it sqirted, it oozed.. i thought that the worst was behind me, but then i noticed the skin was throbbing... it was extremely painful.. I applied a cottonball with alchohol..it stung and burned, it was extremely hot to the touch. I applied neosporin and prayed it would go away overnight. When i awoke, i could feel my cheek hot and swollen..i could see my cheek if i looked down, even the skin around my eye was hot and swollen.. the whole side of my face was hot and painful. When i looked in the mirror, i was shocked..a half-dollar sized wound, hot-red, half crusty-scab, half oozing.. swollen. I just wanted to die, cant go to school, cant go anywhere! I have been cleaning it with witch hazel and keeping neosporin on it...it has been 3 days.. the swelling on my face has gone down..the wound is slightly smaller and no longer oozing.. still hot-red and hurts. maybe it's infected? i dont have insurance! please everyone...dont be like me...DON'T PICK

LMAO! Best descriptive story ever. It's hilarious because it's true. My favorite part was "I could see a white head, that was all I needed and I attacked!"

I am glad that you liked it ; ) It really helped me from making it worse.. And hope that if anything can be gained from the experience...its DONT PICK! It is now 5 days of healing and NO TOUCHING! The scab is smaller than a dime, very shallow and pink and flakey with skin-colored dry flakey skin all around it (from all the alchohol) But there is no infection and (knock on wood) No new major pimples like i feared would sprout up all over my face. I was able to go to all my classes today and did not even attempt to cake makeup on the wound.. I think this experience really reminded me not to mess with my face!

Ya know...I basically just got done posting that EXACT same story on another thread lolThis happened this past Monday, and I don't think I have ever been more ecstatic about catching the flu and missing work the next day hahaha

Seriously...I'm going to invest in a pair of mittens. Possibly destroy all my mirrors while I'm at it

I am glad that you liked it ; ) It really helped me from making it worse.. And hope that if anything can be gained from the experience...its DONT PICK! It is now 5 days of healing and NO TOUCHING! The scab is smaller than a dime, very shallow and pink and flakey with skin-colored dry flakey skin all around it (from all the alchohol) But there is no infection and (knock on wood) No new major pimples like i feared would sprout up all over my face. I was able to go to all my classes today and did not even attempt to cake makeup on the wound.. I think this experience really reminded me not to mess with my face!

Wow, kiddo, the actions you experienced were a bit uncontrolled. If you can't pull away from the mirror, try just looking in your own eyes. Remember you have pretty eyes. They will be remembered about you more than the passing wounds of acne...I have to pull myself away, so you are not alone, I know how hard it can be... When it gets bad like that, it is better to get more focused on school work and stay away from the mirrors-- pretend they don't exist... for a while...

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Thank you.. I've been absolutely pick-free since this incident... it REALLY reminded me why picking is the worst! So the wound has healed, it is only a small, indented pink spot on the high part of my cheek.. My skin has been pretty good, i only have a very small white head on my chin, on my cheek and one on my upper forehead. There are no big bumps no cysts and my skin tone is pretty even. I am cleansing with Clarins Sensitive Cleansing Milk, moisturizing with Jurlique Sensitive Rebalance, doing a Baking Soda Exfoliation every 3 days, and the wonderful egg whites mask every week. Multi-vitamins, as much water as i can stand, and, of course NO PICKING! So far, so good..

hey i had a similar experience last week:( and am now left with a pinkish shiny spot in the middle of my cheek... i want it to heal faster so ive been putting polysporin on it at night, but i dont know if its actually doing anything. have you been putting anything on it specifically?

i also think i am going to be pick free after this lmao.. never want to go through how i felt last week again..

Regimen[am] rinse face with water and moisturize with velocity moisturizer[pm] wash face with velocity cleanser and moisturize with velocity moisturizer mixed with a couple drops of TTO.

I'll tell you what helped a lot... extra virgin olive oil, i applied it whenever i thought about it.. and it really took the redness down, and it seemed that the new skin forming was healthier and smoother.. there are many threads on here about the benefits of olive oil, definitely worth a try! Good Luck!

really, i never heard about using that but ill definitely keep it in mind next time, thanks:)

its been about a week since the scab came off and thankfully the skin isnt shiny anymore just a little red so when i put my foundation over it you cant even see it, i ended up just putting polysporin on it all the time and am just so happy for that experience to be over with and hope i never give in to picking again!!!

Regimen[am] rinse face with water and moisturize with velocity moisturizer[pm] wash face with velocity cleanser and moisturize with velocity moisturizer mixed with a couple drops of TTO.

okay i did the exact same thing like 5 days ago and it only made it worse cuz i couldnt get the core out"( it hurt like a mother and it was ugly like a mother too but the scab is now gone and the light red mark i was left with is gone and can be covered up with foundation i also have scars from previous pickings i swear its soooo addicting ecspecially when you look in the mirror lol")

Basically...if you squeeze and no blood comes out after the gunk, then you know that there is still gunk left in the pimple. That rule never fails. If you see clear liquid after the gunk, then there is gunk left in the pore.

I once squeezed a cyst for 5 minutes. Gunk just kept on coming out. I waited for the blood. When the last bit of gunk was out, and the blood came pouring out, I knew it was over. Blood literally ran for 5 minutes, and I couldn't get it to stop. My face was covered in blood. My jawline was soaked. I was ecstatic.....no j/k.

ugh.. i know that fluttery, relieved feeling of "getting it all out".. but it is so traumatic to the tissue involved and surrounding. (knock on wood)since this original post i haven't had any bad ones that begged to be mashed. It is so very very hard to resist messing with them. But even when i think about touching my face, i look at the mark left over and that helps change my mind!

It's kinda a bittersweet blessing that you have that mark now. I have shallow dips all over my face from picking last semester due to stress. That's my number one deterrent from picking again. So I totally understand scars/red marks being a good reminder. (:

psalm 139:14i praise you, for i am fearfully and wonderfully made.wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.